Comparative advantages of American agriculture to China's agriculture.

Comparison of agricultural production modes between China and America

China's agricultural development has entered a new stage, and it is of great significance to compare the agricultural production modes between China and the United States.

The mode of production and productivity of American agriculture is the most developed in the world. Although the success of American agriculture benefits from its unique agricultural resources, it is closely related to the competitive mode of production formed by the organizational structure and management mechanism of agriculture and related industries after a hundred years of historical evolution and market competition. Agriculture in China is an important part of world agriculture. To analyze the development status, existing problems and the prospect of modernization of agricultural production mode in China, we must link it with American agriculture and learn from its experience and lessons.

(a) Agricultural producers in China are obviously different from those in the United States in specialization and scale.

American agriculture is dominated by family farms, accounting for about 87% of all kinds of farms, partnership farms account for 10%, and company farms account for 3% (1987). Because many partnership farms and company farms also depend on family farms, almost all farms in the United States are family farms. It can be said that American agriculture is carried out on the basis of farmers' family management.

At the same time, due to the development of agricultural products market, the progress of science and technology and the large-scale allocation of resources, farmers are urged to divide their work and the factors of production are concentrated in the dominant farmers. Specialized and intensive production has accelerated the merger and reorganization among farmers. In terms of the number of farms and the scale of land, the total number of farms in 1950 is 5.65 million, with 48,645,438+00,000 hectares of land (including farmland, pasture and forage land, the same below), and each farm owns 86.20 hectares of land on average. By 1998, the total number of farms had dropped to 2 19000, and the land was 385,988,700 hectares, with an average of 176.04 hectares per farm. The number of farms decreased by 6 1%, and the average size doubled. However, this process is not balanced, and the speed of reducing the number of farms is gradually slowing down. The number of farms decreased by168,500 per year in 1950s, by10/0.3 million in 1960s, by 565,438+million in 1970s and by 29,400 in 1980s. In the 1990s, the total number of farms stabilized. The decline in the total number of farms has enhanced the industrial competitiveness of farmers. At the same time, those farmers who are not suitable for modern agricultural management relocate and switch to cities, which naturally completes the transfer of agricultural labor to secondary and tertiary industries and cities. At present, the proportion of agricultural population in the United States has dropped from 32% in 19 10 to l.8%%.

The main body of agricultural production in China has undergone great changes since the rural reform in the early 1980s, and peasant families have gradually become the main body of agricultural production activities in China, similar to the United States. However, due to China's large population and low per capita agricultural resources, the scale of land management of farmers' families is very small, with only 0.5 hectares per household, and the farmland structure is scattered. From the perspective of rural employment structure, the employment ratio of rural labor force in the primary industry (agriculture) in China is still as high as 70%, and the employment ratio of rural non-agricultural labor force is still very low. A large number of rural people stay in agriculture, which restricts the further improvement of agricultural labor productivity in China.

(2) Compared with the United States, the modernization level of agricultural production and management in China is still in the primary stage.

Agricultural modernization is a process of transforming traditional backward agriculture and improving agricultural labor productivity with advanced agricultural machinery and agricultural technology. Generally, it includes three contents: first, agricultural mechanization, that is, replacing labor, animal power and farm tools with modern farming machinery and irrigation equipment, and putting machinery and equipment into use as much as possible to save labor; Second, technological modernization, through the use of chemical and biological technologies, improve and increase crop varieties and raise the yield level; Third, management modernization means that the industrial sector is developed first, and then mature management methods and experiences are introduced into agriculture to form an agriculture of production, processing and sales.

The structure of agricultural resources in the United States is characterized by a large population and less land, and a large supply of labor. Therefore, in the factor market, the labor price is relatively high. This market price signal induced farmers to choose labor substitution technology, so the technological revolution of American agriculture began with mechanical technology. Agricultural modernization has experienced agricultural machinery revolution, chemical revolution, biological revolution and management revolution (not excluding their interweaving). Agricultural mechanization in the United States has roughly gone through four stages, namely, the semi-mechanized agricultural period from around the Civil War to 19 10, the basic agricultural mechanization period from 19 10 to 1940, the basic agricultural mechanization period from the early 1940s to the end of World War II and the fully mechanized agricultural period after World War II. Since the 1960s, due to the soaring land price, the improvement of land utilization rate has become a prominent contradiction in agricultural modernization. The focus of agricultural modernization in the United States is to improve the land output rate by using biological and chemical technologies. At the same time, the reform and application of agricultural machinery itself is still accompanied by the process of agricultural modernization. We attach great importance not only to the modernization of agricultural production technology, but also to the modernization of agricultural organization and management, and vigorously promote agricultural specialization, integration and socialization. There are three main forms of specialization: regional specialization, departmental specialization and business specialization. By 1969, more than 90% farms in the United States specialize in producing one product. According to the calculation of American experts, this alone will increase the output of American agricultural products by about 40% and reduce the cost by 50%? 80%。 At the same time, the United States accelerated the agricultural management revolution, on the one hand, it applied the management technology of industrial departments to farm management; On the other hand, on the basis of establishing highly developed agricultural infrastructure, all aspects of agriculture before, during and after delivery will be formed into a unified agricultural complex to realize industrial management. American industrial development was divided by World War II, the characteristics of modernization gradually emerged, and facility agriculture was strengthened, which supported its strong position in world agriculture. Its main features can be summarized as three aspects:

First, the level of mechanization has been further improved. From World War II to the middle and late 1960s, all kinds of agricultural machinery increased rapidly. 1945- 1965, tractors increased 103%, grain combine harvesters increased 179%, and the number of other types of machinery also increased significantly. Since then, the number of machinery has grown slowly and gradually stabilized, and some machinery has declined. But the mechanical quality and performance have been greatly improved. 1965, the average power of each tractor was 36.8 horsepower, and 1986 increased to 66.6 horsepower. In some difficult fields, such as potatoes, beets, tomatoes and grapes, harvesting has been mechanized. Livestock and poultry breeding has been automated and industrialized. At present, agricultural machinery combined with computer and satellite remote sensing technology is developing towards high automation and precision.

The second is to realize agricultural chemistry characterized by the wide application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. After World War II, the consumption of chemical fertilizers in the United States rose sharply from 1950s to 1980s. After 1980s, with the improvement of fertilizer input level and the continuous improvement of effective components in fertilizer production, the amount of fertilizer used showed a downward trend. Third, intensive management and industrialization, specialized production and socialized services. Before the 1970s, some tobacco and cotton farms in the south were still labor-intensive, and now most of them have become large-scale mechanized farms. At present, the average scale of farms in the United States has reached 176 hectares, of which large farms have reached 1200- 1600 hectares. Mechanized technology and capital-intensive management have become the main modes of operation. Moreover, in the process of agricultural development, the division of labor is getting finer and finer, the degree of industrialization is getting higher and higher, and the expansion of farm scale also promotes the improvement of specialization. Small farms (annual output value/kloc-below 0/00000 dollars) account for 83.6%, and agricultural output value only accounts for 34.2%; Medium-sized farms (annual output value of US$ 65,438+0-500,000) account for 14.2%, and agricultural output value accounts for 38%; Large-scale farms (with an annual output value of more than 500,000 US dollars) account for only 2.2%, but their agricultural output value accounts for 27.8% (L98). The specialization ratio of farms reached a high level, with 79.6% for cotton farms, 87.3% for vegetable farms, 8l. 1% for field crops, 98.5% for horticultural crops, 96.3% for fruit trees, 87.9% for beef cattle, 84.2% for dairy cows and 96.3% for poultry farms.

With the improvement of agricultural specialization, various organizations and cooperatives serving farmers have developed in large numbers, and the socialized services before, during and after delivery are very thoughtful. At present, the main types of service organizations are: various large-scale production materials companies; Banks and credit cooperatives that provide credit to farmers: various cooperatives organized by farmers themselves; Various associations and farmers' markets organized by farmers themselves.

After entering the mid-1980s, China's traditional agriculture began to move towards the goal of modern agriculture in terms of system innovation, price mechanism, non-traditional factor input and market system construction. But compared with American modern agriculture, China's agricultural development has different characteristics:

1, agricultural resources are relatively poor. There are many people but few land, and the population density is high. Objectively speaking, we must cherish agricultural resources, take the road of modern agricultural development and improve the output level of agricultural resources.

2. The development of non-agricultural economy to a certain extent has created more favorable conditions for the development of modern agriculture. Under the condition of increasing agricultural output, non-agricultural industries are developing rapidly, the proportion of agricultural added value is declining rapidly, and China's ability to participate in the international economy is enhanced, which provides favorable conditions such as low price factors for the development of modern agriculture in China, but its ability to support the development of modern agriculture is still relatively fragile.

3. The shortage of agricultural products in China has been alleviated for a long time, which has created favorable conditions for the adjustment of agricultural structure. After more than 20 years of development since China's reform and opening up, basic agricultural products such as grain, cotton and oil have achieved a "basic balance between supply and demand, with surplus in good years", and the strategic adjustment of agricultural structure can be achieved through regionalization, specialization and high quality.

4. The farming level is already very high, so it is necessary to promote the all-round development and upgrading of agriculture. During the period of 1996- 1998, the grain output per hectare in China was 482 1 kg, while that in the United States was 5380 kg, and the world average was 2022 kg. China's grain yield per unit area has reached a higher level in the world, but efforts are still needed in structural adjustment and quality improvement.

5. The dual structure of urban and rural economy is still very obvious. China has a huge rural population. Compared with the urban population, the urbanization index is obviously lower than that of many countries. This shows that although the level of urbanization in China has developed, the distribution of urban and rural population is still extremely unreasonable, and about 50% of employees in China are engaged in agricultural planting and breeding. A large number of labor forces are distributed in rural areas, and many agricultural surplus labor forces need to be transferred quickly. Otherwise, it is difficult to improve the level of agricultural labor resources, which will affect the development of modern agriculture and rural areas.

It can be seen that there is a big gap between China and the United States in the level of agricultural modernization, and the level of agricultural development is still in the primary stage. In order to realize agricultural modernization, China still needs to develop its strengths and avoid its weaknesses, and greatly improve agricultural labor productivity on the basis of improving land productivity.